TheDailyBeast: Holiday Movie Preview

Holiday Movie Preview

With awards season upon us, the movie studios are breaking out the big guns, treating audiences to their finest films. There’s truly something for everybody: the epic movie-musical "Les Misérables"—with Anne Hathaway’s gut-wrenching performance; Judd Apatow's new comedy "This Is 40"; Peter Jackson’s return to the Shire in "The Lord of the Rings" prequel "The Hobbit"; and "Zero Dark Thirty", a film chronicling the decade-long hunt for Osama bin Laden, directed by "The Hurt Locker’s" Kathryn Bigelow. Check out the most anticipated films this holiday season.

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With awards season upon us, the movie studios are breaking out the big guns, treating audiences to their finest films. There’s truly something for everybody: the epic movie-musical "Les Misérables"—with Anne Hathaway’s gut-wrenching performance; Judd Apatow's new comedy "This Is 40"; Peter Jackson’s return to the Shire in "The Lord of the Rings" prequel "The Hobbit"; and "Zero Dark Thirty", a film chronicling the decade-long hunt for Osama bin Laden, directed by "The Hurt Locker’s" Kathryn Bigelow. Check out the most anticipated films this holiday season.

In "Hyde Park on Hudson", the incomparable Bill Murray delivers a splendid performance as iconic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Directed by Roger Michell ("Notting Hill"), this beautifully lensed parlor drama centers on, first and foremost, FDR’s critical meeting with King George VI (Samuel West) and his wife, Queen Elizabeth (Olivia Colman), at the president’s country estate in Hyde Park, N.Y., on the eve of World War II. The second, less captivating thread concerns the randy, wheelchair-bound president’s love affair with his fifth cousin Margaret Suckley, played by Laura Linney. Despite some narrative deficiencies, as well as suffering from some "The King’s Speech" déjà vu, Michell’s film is worth the price of admission for Murray, who deftly channels FDR—in particular, his droll sense of humor.

Filmmaker Peter Jackson’s last trip to the Shire, 2003’s "Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King", won all 11 Academy Awards it was nominated for, including Best Picture. Now he’s returned for another movie trilogy based on "The Lord of the Rings’" prequel novel "The Hobbit". The first in a series that will be released in three consecutive years, is "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey", centered on Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), a hobbit who is hired by the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) to lead a fellowship of 13 dwarves against the evil dragon Smaug. In addition to McKellenn, several of the other actors from the "LOTR" trilogy are reprising their roles, including Andy Serkis, Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett, Elijah Wood, and Orlando Bloom. Will lightning strike again?

This based-on-a-true-story film stars Alan Cumming and Garret Dillahunt as a gay couple in the 1970s who take in a teenager afflicted with Down syndrome (Isaac Leyva) after he’s abandoned by his mother. They become the family he never had—that is, until the authorities catch wind of their “atypical” family environment, resulting in an exhaustive legal fight to retain custody of the adopted son they love. The timely film won the Audience Awards at the Tribeca, Chicago, and Woodstock Film Festivals and has received near-universal praise from critics.

Director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal’s follow-up to their Oscar-winning film, "The Hurt Locker", is one of the most anticipated movies of the year, and has already been crowned Best Picture by numerous awards groups, including the National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics Circle. The film chronicles the decade-long hunt for Osama bin Laden through the eyes of Maya (Jessica Chastain), a ballsy CIA operative obsessed with finding the mastermind behind 9/11. "Zero Dark Thirty" not only is one of the best films of the year—and features one of the year’s most badass silver-screen heroines in Maya—but a journalistic triumph as well.

Directed by rom-com guru Anne Fletcher, the filmmaker behind the underrated hits "27 Dresses" and "The Proposal", this road-trip comedy follows Andy Brewster (Seth Rogen), a budding inventor who goes on a cross-country road trip hawking his latest product. In an act of charity, he decides to bring along his single mother, played by the inimitable Barbra Streisand, to give her something to do and possibly reunite her with a former flame. The dynamic duo, naturally, hit many strange bumps along the way.

German-Austrian auteur Michael Haneke has built a solid reputation for his mesmerizing, grim sagas like "The Piano Teacher" and "The White Ribbon", but he exhibits a lighter touch with "Amour". The film follows an elderly couple, Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) and Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant), a pair of retired music teachers living in Paris. When Anne suffers a terrible stroke that leaves her paralyzed, Georges is forced into the role of doting caretaker, struggling to make his great love’s final days as painless as possible. The film won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, was selected as the Austrian entry for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, and may be the first foreign-language film to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar since 2006’s "Letters From Iwo Jima".

Like Peter Jackson ("The Hobbit") before him, comedy filmmaking guru Judd Apatow has decided to return to the well with this spinoff to his 2007 critical and commercial hit, "Knocked Up". The dramedy follows Debbie (Apatow’s real-life wife, Leslie Mann) and Pete (Paul Rudd) as they struggle with their marriage and family (the two daughters are played by Apatow’s real-life daughters, Maude and Iris) after turning 40. The film also boasts a rich supporting cast, including John Lithgow, Albert Brooks, Jason Segel, Melissa McCarthy, Lena Dunham, and Chris O’Dowd.

Spanish filmmaker Juan Antonio Bayona’s ("The Orphanage") latest film tells the true story of a family’s harrowing experience during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami (the family, however, has been changed from Spanish to British). The couple, played by Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor, along with their three young sons, are spending their Christmas vacation in Thailand when, on the morning of Dec. 26, 2004, a tsunami destroys their resort and separates the family. This is one of the best disaster films ever made—the tsunami sequences are absolutely jaw-dropping—and the film is beautifully shot. But it’s the performances, especially by Watts and newcomer Tom Holland as the family’s eldest child, Lucas, that make "The Impossible" one of the best films of the year.

After winning the Best Director Oscar—along with Best Picture—for "The King’s Speech", filmmaker Tom Hooper decided to follow that triumph up by adapting one of the greatest musicals of all time, "Les Misérables". The film tells the epic story of Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman), a man sentenced to 19 years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread. He flees parole and remakes himself, but is doggedly pursued by his former prison supervisor, Inspector Javert (Russell Crowe)—all while raising Cosette (Amanda Seyfried), the bastard child of Fantine (Anne Hathaway), a fallen woman. Hooper’s decision to have his game cast sing all the songs live pays off. The musical numbers soar and the performances are stellar across the board in what has emerged as one of the front-runners for the Best Picture Oscar.